Barry Sanders talks about concussions, locker room hazing

ALLEN PARK — Detroit Lions great Barry Sanders returned to Allen Park last week, not to make an appearance at the Lions training facility, but to give an award to Allen Park High School senior tight end Jake Barann.

After the ceremony, in which Sanders gave Barann a plaque as one of the 10 finalists nationwide for the U.S. Army and the Pro Football Hall of Fame “Award of Excellence,” he spoke to the media about the current state of the NFL, including his thoughts on the Lions’ chances, the Miami Dolphins hazing scandal and Tony Dorsett’s recent announcement about possibly having head injuries from his playing days.

During his visit to the school, he also met up with former backfield mate Cory Schlesinger. The two were teammates from 1995 until Sanders sudden retirement in 1998. Schlesinger, who helped pave the way for Sanders’ 2,053-yard season in 1997, is now a teacher at the high school.

Sanders was very optimistic about the Lions’ chances of winning the division.

“Certainly before the season I picked them to win,” Sanders said. “Right now, there is a kind of bottleneck at the top, no one has a commanding lead. All of our key guys for the most part are healthy and playing well. There is no reason anyone should be able to stop our offense.”

Sanders said the offensive attack is more important in the NFL today than when he played.

“With it being a passing game and us having the most dominate receiver and a top quarterback, we’ve got a great chance,” he said.

In light of the allegations of extreme rookie hazing coming out of the Dolphins organization, Sanders spoke about his rookie experience, specifically if he was ever hazed.

“No, no, no,” he said while laughing. “I just did what all the other rookies did, sing an embarrassing song in front of everyone, buy doughnuts — that sort of thing.”

When asked for his take on hazing, he didn’t have a clear opinion.

“I don’t know,” he said, “I’m just really trying to sort through it. Each team is different; some guys take it more serious than others. Sometimes that has to do with what they experienced.

“I think there is a little bit of truth to all of it. Coach may have said toughen the guy up a little bit. The other guy probably just took too much of license, got a little carried away.”

When asked if there is a hazing problem in the NFL, he said that it had “been a little while,” since he’d been in a locker room, but there was no problem when he played.

Sanders also spoke about his own childhood hero, Tony Dorsett, who recently announced he has signs of chronic traumatic encephalopathy, which has been linked to concussions. CTE is caused by a buildup of tau, a protein that causes memory lapses.

“I hope the best for Tony,” he said. “He was a guy that I looked up to. His senior year at the University of Pittsburgh, that was my first year, I was like 9 years old playing Little League football.”

“That’s a pretty broad, serious subject,” Sanders continued. “I think that all parties involved are at least taking steps to get players diagnosed, current and former players.”

He said diagnosing former players is tricky because they aren’t “in the system.”

“Unfortunately, we are in the developmental stages of understanding all of this,” he said. “All throughout my career I would hear about guys that had trouble later on. No one at that point had pinpointed what was going on.

“I played in the ‘90s,” he said. “Pretty much everything was left up to the player, just going to him and asking ‘How do you feel today?’ God forbid it was a guy who was fighting for his job, that just wanted to get back out on the field. It’s a tough situation.”

Contact Dave Herndon at 1-734-246-0867 or dherndon@heritage.com. Follow him on Facebook and @NHDaveH on Twitter.